The Final Destiny of Final Fantasy
by FawkenMan16
Summary: The Final Destiny of Final Fantasy is loosely based off of the Final Fantasy series. Set in the historic world of Rathmere, this story revolves around an upandcoming summoner who becomes the greatest hero of all time.
1. Burgundie

Chapter 1: Burgundie

It was a bright sunny daybreak; fresh with the summer scent of fragrant tree leaves flowing into the village from the woods around the town of Burgundie. The sun had just popped over the hill above the town and the forests, illuminating the thatched wooden houses inside the giant wall that protected the town from the elements and wild beasts. The sun moved further up in the sky, shining on each stoop, making the bicycles that were strewn on the wooden house walls glisten, and brightening the gable roof of the clock tower in the center of town, which at this point was ringing ten times to signify the morning of a thirty-two hour day.

Burgundie was the type of town that always remained the same, as if change itself had missed its doorsteps. No outsiders, save from a trader or the random adventurer from the nearby town of Lapasca, or even a rare occurrence of some official from the great far away city of Scanamesca, had ever graced its presence. Everything, from the wandering shepherd and his flock of sheep, to the graceful trainer and their stock of yellow chocobos running amok, had remained the same for as long as anyone could remember.

This boredom was just what seventeen-year-old Arina Lanthart hated about her hometown. She was always looking for new adventures, for a new life. But what she really wanted more than anything else was to see the world with her friends. She finally had the chance – a month ago she graduated from the town's academy and was ready to either head out into the world, using the magic skills she learned and the fighting techniques she craved, or find herself working on her family farm just outside of town. Her parents, of course, wanted her to go into the agriculture business, but she rather wanted to study the ancient art of avatar summoning. Of course, Burgundie didn't have nearly the resources needed to study the ancient avatar art, so she was stuck.

She woke up just as the clock tower finished ringing its tenth time. As she woke up, she stretched and moved to her closet, changing her clothes, and then went to her bathroom and got herself ready for the day. After she left the bathroom, she checked herself again in the mirror, and then walked towards the door, leading out into the hallway in her three-floored thatched home. As she moved down the hallway, she heard her mother calling her from the steps. "Arina! Come down here! Your chores are waiting for you!"

Sulking, Arina walked down the stairs, where her mother, hands on her hips, was waiting for her. "Young lady," she said in a stern voice, "you were supposed to be up two hours ago helping your father at the farm."

"I'm sorry, Mother," Arina said back to her mother, "I guess I just overslept."

"You guess you just overslept?" her mother, getting angrier, uttered. "Well, you have many chores to do." After handing her a few tools, her mother instructed her to head out to the farm and help her father with daily farm chores. Arina signed and grabbed a fruit as she walked out the door, passing the kitchen as she grasped the metal handle to the door, opening it and closing it behind her. Walking down her front stoop's steps, she quickly grabbed her metallic red bike and started to pedal south towards the southern city gate.

There were many people mulling about in Burgundie from day to day. One could easily see people carrying goods to the center of the town and the market there, or many young children playing around in the streets, happy that lessons were over for the summer. One could even see carts of weapons behind chocobos trotting towards the general store, with people holding massive amounts of scrolls behind. Arina knew what those scrolls were; she had bought a few and learned the magic behind them. Only a few white magic spells, like the ability to cure and remove extra symptoms, but these two were very useful. Of course, she also knew how to use a sword and a bow, which made it useful for her just in case something ever happened. She learned mostly, however, about the avatars, and the ancient art of avatar summoning. As she walked further towards the town gate, she noticed less and less people mulling about, and more and more livestock, like sheep, heading into and away from the town center. It made walking on the cobblestone road a little troublesome to have sheep running about, and when one bumped into her, the tools in her arms fell. She picked them up and continued to dodge the incomers, but when she got to the open town gate, she sighed and easily walked south out through the town gate to her father's farm just on the other side. A guard, dressed in red with a spear in his right hand, nodded as she passed.

She arrived at the farm a few minutes later. "Hey, Father," Arina said, groaning as she set the tools down and grabbed one in the anticipation that he would instruct her in some duty, but when her father told her the work was almost done, she shrugged and put that tool down. "All I really need you to do," her father instructed her, "is feed Charlie." Charlie was the family's chocobo, and was one of the only types of chocobo to not be of a yellow color. Instead, Charlie was of different sub-species – a deep red-orange coloring with spikes like those of a rosebush on his orange-colored legs. He was also a bit less mild-tempered, so when she went to go feed him, the chocobo almost snapped at her when she didn't fill the food trough high enough. He, in return, made a funny 'kweh' sound as all chocobos do, pressed his beak up on her forehead to push her back, and began eating intensely, as if he hadn't eaten in a year.

Rubbing her forehead, she left her father at the farm as he was packing up his tools and bundling up carrots, ready to bring them back into town to sell any extra the family didn't use to the market. Heading back into town, she ran into one of her friends, the eighteen-year-old Marcus Feliant, a tall, muscular, brutish sort-of person with shaved red hair and scars over much of his body, mostly due to training. "Hey," he said, greeting her. "Are we still on tonight for you-know-what," to which Arina smiled and nodded. For years Arina, Marcus, and a few other friends of age had been talking about running away and starting their adventure this night, but now that the day had finally come, it was much more of a real thing. Back then it was only in their dreams, but they finally agreed to this date, the eighteenth day of the month of Teritana, the tenth month out of the sixteen months of the year. It was only fitting then that she get herself ready for the trip, including finding a good weapon, since they were sneaking away from town in the dead of night, when the wild animals were at their fiercest.

"I have to get to the general store," Arina commented, "I have to pick up a weapon for the journey. I doubt my white magic skills will get me very far," to which Marcus laughed. "No," he said, wiping his brow with his hand, "but we'll at least be safe, with that Cure spell you know." Arina smiled, and then went with Marcus back inside town.

The town was just as busy when Arina and Marcus came back into it, and at a fork, they decided to take the road to the left, a smaller dirt road that went straight up a hill to the town center, rather than the larger cobblestone road to the right that wrapped around it gradually, especially since Arina's family lived right on the larger road and her parents would probably be out, sitting on the stoop. Not wanting to create a scene, Arina and Marcus climbed the short, steep road, up past houses set on foundations peaking up so that the houses were level. Right before the town square, Arina and Marcus passed by the town shrine, brimming with people coming and going, bringing with them presents to the avatars – the great gods who, according to legend, created the world and everything on it. Arina hoped that one day, one day soon, she would be able to summon these great avatars, just like other summoners before her. However, just as this thought entered her mind, the two of them ended up face to face with the town center, where the most important town buildings were located around a giant, center, rectangular plot of grass laid out from east to west. The town hall, a stone-covered façade, gothic building, where all town business was conducted, was located on the western side, in the north-center with attached clock tower, the one that chimes every hour on the hour. A section of the chapel was to the south side and a road heading back to the edge of town was on the north. On the north side was the open-air market, with people mulling about looking for the latest produce brought in from the farmers on wooden shelves, merchants trying to sell product for a good price. On the eastern side, the town's academy, another example of gothic architecture, with its tall roof and all, currently had its doors closed for the summer. On the southern side, another group of buildings, a blacksmith, a general store, a bank, and an inn, were all spread out so that there were really small cobblestone alleyways between each. The weapons' shop, the one furthest to the west, was the building Arina and Marcus were shooting for. Walking to the weapons' shop, Marcus reached for the wooden plank door's bronze doorknob, turning it and opening the door, allowing the opportunity for Arina to walk in. She did, turning to thank Marcus, and walked further, into the shop. Marcus, although technically being her friend, enjoyed his view when he walked in after her.

The weapons' shop had loads to offer. All sorts of swords, daggers, bows and staves were hanging from hooks on the wall; so many, in fact, they covered up most of the wall. There was little light in the place – the only light was a lamp sitting on the counter, giving just enough light for the blacksmith at the counter to polish a silver broadsword.

"Can I help you?" the blacksmith asked, looking up from polishing. The scar that, when his left eye was shut, went clear from his forehead to his nose, made Arina a little nervous, even though she had seen this man before many times. However, Marcus loved coming into the blacksmith shop, especially when the blacksmith was in a good mood, since Marcus had spoken often to Arina and their other friends of how many stories he had to tell.

"Yeah, we're looking for some weapons," Marcus said, looking around and spotting a broadsword on the wall he really liked. He zoned off for a second, but came back once he spotted someone else in the weapons' shop besides himself, Arina, and the blacksmith.

It was Tarenn Randonne, one of Marcus and Arina's friends, an eighteen-year-old like Marcus, who was also sneaking out of town tonight with them. But unlike Marcus, Tarenn did not rely much on brute strength. Rather, she was known for her skills in black magic (she was the best in black magic in their class), and also for her handiwork with a bow and arrows. "Hey, you two," she said, as she turned away from a particular bow she fancied, "find anything in here you like? We're going to need all the strength we can get." Then she turned back to the bows, and as she took one off the wall, she walked it over to the blacksmith, and told him that she would like the bow before them. Happy that he was selling something, the blacksmith flashed a wide smile as he took the money from Tarenn. "Thank you for your purchase," the blacksmith pined, and then asked if she needed a quiver as he handed her a bounded set of arrows. "No, thanks, I already have one," she mentions to him, and then walks over to Arina and Marcus, rolling her eyes, as the blacksmith frowned, hoping she'd make another purchase. "I'll meet you guys near the south gate tonight," she instructed them. They all agreed to meet by the twenty-fourth hour, which allowed them to run from the city under deep cover of night, and when they were done planning, Tarenn left the blacksmith shop to get everything ready for tonight. "I'll tell the others. We'll be there early." Then, as she was closing the door behind her, she looked at Marcus with a stern face, and uttered, "Don't be late."

Once Marcus and Alina were left to their own devices, it took them little time to figure out what they wanted. Marcus went up to the blacksmith and asked how much the broadsword cost, then when realizing that there was no possible way he could ever afford it now, he grabbed a smaller, regular sword made of silver but painted white with gold detailing, and thrust it up to the blacksmith. Again happy that he was making a sale, but less happy to oblige since a kid shoving a sword in his face so rudely interrupted him, he took the money from Marcus, gave him an evil stare, and threw the sword at him. Then, when he was done with Marcus, the blacksmith moved over to Alina. "Find something you like?" he asked her, wondering if he could find her the perfect weapon.

"Yeah, a few things," she responded, "but nothing I've really fallen in love with. I'm studying to become a summoner."

The blacksmith laughed. "You should have told me!" he said, moving over to a door behind the counter. "I have just the thing you're looking for." He then went into the other room, grabbed what seemed to be a staff, and came back into the main room.

"This staff," he informed Alina as he walked back over to her, "is very useful. Very powerful, depending on how strong your skills are." He then showed her, up close and personal, the staff he intended to sell to her. It was a long, metal staff painted white, with metallic strips painted in different colors wrapped around it. Toward one end was padding where the hand could rest easily, and a large gold metallic ball used for ornament purposes. On the other end was another type of ornament, a large metal spike painted gold, to match the ball at the bottom, with white strands of metal wrapped around it so it looked like an art-nouveau angel. "It's called the Valentina Staff; handed down through my family. They were all big summoners in their heyday." As he handed it to her, he looked down at the floor. "I can't use it, so I might as well give it to someone else." As Arina moved over to the counter to pay for it, the blacksmith shook his head.

"No money for that. You can take it free of charge," he said, smiling to her. "Just promise me you'll stay with it." Alina, shocked that someone would actually just give away something like this, refused and said she had to pay, but the blacksmith wouldn't take it. All Alina could do was thank him for his kindness, and she and Marcus left the store.

"Wow! Aren't you lucky!" Marcus commented, poking Alina in the stomach as the two walked away from the weapons shop heading west. "I wish I got a weapon for free."

"Yeah, well, I sort of feel funny about it," Arina uttered, feeling very guilty that, although the blacksmith clearly wasn't going to let her pay for it, she still felt like she stole it away from him. "I guess it can't be helped, but still…"

Marcus had a great laugh. "Oh, get over it," he said, as they passed by the bank. Unlike the rest of the stores, which had your standard, regular old window, the bank had one, giant rectangular window, which now hung some sort of propaganda from the First International Bank in the city of Castiela, a place that Arina heard was absolutely gorgeous. _Change your money to gil today,_ it said on the poster in big purple letters. "The gil bills and pieces are really different looking," Arina said, looking at the picture of the new money that was going to be circulated. "I feel like it should be hanging up in an art museum somewhere than being spent."

Marcus laughed. "Wow, you are such a dork." Arina responded by stepping on Marcus's foot.

Arina and Marcus separated heading down the main street, Marcus heading off a side street back to his house, and Arina continuing down the street to her house. As she got there, she saw her mother, who hadn't noticed her, sitting on the stoop outside waiting for something. She quickly ran out back, hid the new staff in a pile of hay bunched up against the house, and ran back to the front.

"Hey, Mother. I'm back from chores," Arina said, trying to keep a straight face. In response, her mother had told her that her father had been back for at least an hour. Arina, trying to keep her mother from figuring out her plan, told her a somewhat distorted version of the truth: that she and Marcus met up, and that they went to the market together and looked for any lunch to buy. Surprisingly, it worked; the rest of the day was devoted to more chores, and a bit of fun.

When night came, and hour twenty-four was fast approaching, Arina found herself in her room, with her parents above her, sleeping in their cozy bed. She waited a few more seconds, and crept out of her room and down the stairs. She thought she was almost home free, when she heard footsteps above her. Panicking, she hid under the large plank table in the center of the kitchen. When she saw feet walking toward the food pantry, she realized it was her dad. After a few minutes, however, he went back upstairs. Thankful that she closed her bedroom door behind her, her father assumed she was fast asleep and walked back up the fight of stairs to his bedroom. She crawled out of her hiding spot, and quietly opened the door, closing it behind her ever so quietly as well.

After she retrieved her wand from her hiding spot, she realized she had a bit of time left before she had to meet the rest of the gang. So, what better way to spend her time, she thought, then to head up to the shrine? After all, she was studying to become a summoner, and summoners try to bring forth the power of avatars, which the shrines celebrated. So, she took that short hilly route again up to the shrine.

It was an open air shrine, a little shack-type thing sitting on top of a small, man made hill and around cherry trees. Arina walked on stone slabs that served as the walkway up. At the top, she went to the giant statue of an angel. It was of a woman with not four wings, but six, grouped in three. She was in a kneeling position, with a staff that looked very similar to the one Arina carried.

"We finally have a statue of Valentina for the shrine," a mysterious voice from behind her spoke. She turned around to see it wasn't the priest of the shrine, but rather another friend of hers, seventeen-year-old Isaac Runtsel. "And we picked today to leave, and you're here praying."

Arina laughed. "Nice to see you too, Isaac."

He laughed and stepped beside Arina. He had classic, rugged looks, like Marcus, but he wasn't nearly as muscular. Still, he could hold his own, and his brass spiked knuckles, currently on his hand, really did the trick. He was always getting into fights at school, and he almost got kicked out permanently, but he survived to see himself graduate from the academy. "Hey, you got a new staff," he commented, looking at the Valentina Staff Arina was holding in her right hand. "Looks really valuable. How could you afford it?"

"The blacksmith. It's a family heirloom of his, and he gave it to me," Arina said back to him. "Thought I would make better use of it." Then they both looked at the statue, and said a few prayers for a safe journey. "C'mon," Isaac finally said once they were finished, "it's almost twenty-four. We better hightail it to the meeting ground." And so they went, back down to the place where they said they would meet. After about ten minutes, they got there, finding Marcus and Tarenn in the process.

"We thought you chickened out," Marcus said, to which Tarenn replied that only Marcus felt that way. Isaac and Arina had a good laugh, and then they headed toward the gate at the edge of town.

"So, how are we getting out of here?" Arina asked, puzzled by how this was going to work. "The gate's closed until morning."

Marcus pointed to the house next to the gate. "That's the gatehouse, right there. There's no guard right now, they're changing guard. We go out now."

Isaac and Tarenn looked at each other, both nodding in agreement, then ran into the gatehouse as fast as they could. Marcus was right, there was no one inside, so Marcus tugged on the silver ring of the strong wooden door across the room from the one they just entered. He opened it, and Isaac closed it behind him. As they started walking further out, heading to the surrounding woods, the four friends looked at each other. Had they really done this? Had they really snuck out of town? They were positively giddy as they walked even further, past the family farm of Arina's parents. Finally, they crossed past a small fence made out of driftwood as they headed into the nearby Barthane Woods, with their weapons drawn and smiles worn.


	2. Barthane Woods

Chapter 2: Barthane Woods

The calm night breeze brought the scent of the nearby ocean onto the paths of the usually beautiful Barthane Woods, full of wafting pine needles mixing with cotton candy-colored cherry blossoms. However, in the dark of night, one couldn't see two feet in front of them. The only thing that was keeping Alina and the three other young adventurers from turning back was the fact that they had already gone too far into the forest to turn back now. It was smart for someone, however, to bring a flashlight.

"How are we supposed to see where we're going?" Tarenn asked the rest of the group as they trekked along the unleveled dirt road carved out of the land between heavy trees.

"Hello? The flashlight…" Isaac said, banging on the flashlight that was now going on and off, malfunctioning since its batteries were almost used up completely. Tarenn and Alina rolled her eyes, and the four of them continued on, down the road.

The road forked further ahead, with one trail leading off to the right, which looked like it headed back to Burgundie; the four headed on the trail heading to the left, and heading south. This would be all well and good, if they actually knew where they were going.

"Where are we going again?" Alina asked Isaac and Marcus, sure of the fact that at least one of them would know where they were going, but to Alina's shock, neither of them really knew. "We just thought we would wander around; see where each road takes us," Marcus said, shrugging his broad shoulders, to which both Alina and Tarenn freaked out. Tarenn hit Marcus on the back of the head, saying how completely stupid he was, while Alina walked ahead, not wanting to talk with either of them.

After Marcus received his just reward, Tarenn caught up with Alina, and began to strike in a conversation. "Listen," Tarenn said, "this will be much easier in the morning. Why don't we find a safe place to crash for the night?" Alina gave her a look of complete confusion; after all, where was there a place that was honestly safe. Tarenn began to say something, but before she could get a word out, Marcus quieted them, and pointed into the forest.

It seems as though a noise was coming through the forest, coming right for them. Knowing full well that they wouldn't have time to fun, each of them pulled out their respective weapons and prepared to knock whatever was coming their way into submission. Alina, with her ornate staff, was somewhat useless, but she was always good to have around just in case someone got hurt. Marcus, with his silvery-white sword complete with gold detailing, would definitely be in the front lines, as well as Isaac, who knew how to throw a good punch with his brass spiked knuckles that looked like they could cut a tree in half. Tarenn, however, decided to stick behind with Alina. After all, she carried a bow with her, which was suitable only for long ranges, and to top it all off, her skills with black magic spells required her to stay as far back as possible.

Two wild coyotes with long tongues hanging out came charging up from in the forests and jumped in the air, landing right near Marcus and Isaac. Taken aback, it took them a few seconds to react, just enough time for them to get a hit in on each of them. As if that wasn't bad enough, a wild plant-demon hybrid, a Mandragora, came blasting out of the ground with its fronds shaking.

"Leave me to the Mandragora, guys," Tarenn said to Marcus and Isaac, "I can take care of it, no problem." She then thought about it for a few seconds, and then started to charge up to implement one of her black magic spells. In true Black Mage fashion, one often builds up energy in the body by holding two fingers up to one's forehead, then when the required energy in the body was sufficient, the Black Mage would discharge it, letting go a large amount of energy usually related to one of eight elements, those being fire, ice, water, thunder, wind, earth, light, and darkness.

Being that the Mandragora was, in essence, a plant, Tarenn held two fingers up to her forehead. Marcus and Isaac continued to take damage from the Mandragora, firing seeds at them as though they were bullets coming out of a Tommy gun, as well as the coyotes. Even though they looked considerably weakened, after Arina used her staff to perform a Cure spell, using the same energy Tarenn was trying to build, Marcus and Isaac felt fine.

After a few seconds, both coyotes were defeated, laying on the ground, immobilized, and the Mandragora would be feeling the same sensation, as Tarenn released the energy built up inside her by using the Fire spell aimed right at the Mandragora. Taking a lot of damage, the Mandragora's fronds stopped shaking, but it still continued to fire seeds off. However, after Arina hit it with her staff, it shriveled up and fell to the ground.

As the two coyotes and the Mandragora lie on the ground, limp and lifeless, Isaac and Marcus took a closer look at the scene in front of them, and realized that these demented animals had seen battle before. "Hey guys, look at this," Isaac said, pointing to something on the ground. Picking it up from off the ground, he examined it further. It was a hemp-skin pouch with an opening at the top, sealed only by a black leather string. "Looks like this one nicked some gil," he said, opening the pouch to find a handful of Gil, the global currency, inside. "It must have gotten close enough to town before it got chased away."

Marcus bent over the other coyote, studying it carefully. Looking at it more carefully, he noticed a very similar pouch to the one that Isaac was holding. Sure enough, a few handfuls of Gil were clamoring inside, and when Marcus took one out to examine it, it only took him a few seconds to determine that it really was a Gil piece and some sort of counterfeit. "Has anyone looked at the Mandragora yet?"

Tarenn, getting impatient, starts to snap at Marcus. "Why don't you? You seem to know what the hell you're doing!" She puts her hands on her hips, then adds, "Oh wait, you don't even know where the hell we're going!" She then rolls her eyes, and starts to walk ahead, with Arina close behind her. Marcus and Isaac looked at each other and decided to go look at the Mandragora themselves, staying behind mostly because they were pissed at Tarenn for yelling at them.

About ten minutes later, Arina asked Tarenn if she knew where she was going. Glaring at her with a sense of disdain, Tarenn answered, "Actually, yes, I do. We're going to spend the night in a treehouse not far from here, unbeknownst to those two idiots back there," and pointing to Marcus and Isaac, who were now at a distance behind that was considerably large, rolled her eyes. "My sister told me about it; she built it when she left Burgundie." Tarenn's sister had left the isolated town for bigger and more exciting places, and in return, sent letters home of her adventures. Once in a while, her sister would come back to Burgundie and complain of how boring it really was, and between these conversations, she would often tell her sister of the secrets she left behind, and this was one of them. "It's a pretty big treehouse, and it's pretty safe; she said she left a Charm Crystal there to protect it from the elements." Charm Crystals, rather expensive magic tokens sold only in the largest markets, kept monsters at bay, so it acted as a sort-of safe zone. Most Charm Crystals are housed inside settlements so that monsters would stay clear from them, but once in a while, they would need to be replaced. Fortunately, they have at least a twenty-year lifespan, so the treehouse would be a definite rest stop.

"Good," Arina said, "because it's stupid to go any more than we have to in this dark of night." She blinked her eyes a few times and breathed heavily to keep from falling asleep, dragging her feet along. Occasionally she would look back at Marcus and Isaac, but every time she looked back, they stopped doing whatever they were doing at stared back at her. Annoyed, and a little angry at them for having made her leave town at night, she stopped staring back, but once Marcus and Isaac yelled for them, they turned around and noticed that another Mandragora had appeared, as well as two other monsters. One was a giant floating rock-thing with a face that bounced back and forth, with spikes on top. It looked like it was fuming, with smoke coming out everywhere. The other monster had no face, but rather, it looked like a set of floating irregularly-shaped yellow marbles with what seemed to be semi-inconspicuous lights shining around it.

"The one in the center," Tarenn said, pointing to the flaming floating rock, "is a Bomb. Be careful with that one. And that one over there," she said, pointing to the floating yellow marbles, "is an Elemental. It can only perform certain black magic spells. From the looks of it, it looks like it can only do Lighting attacks. I'll take care of it." She starts charging her energy up for another black magic spell, but before she can do that, the Elemental lets off a lightning spell, shocking Marcus as he slices through the Mandragora. "Ow, that stings!" Marcus screams as the Mandragora pulls its giant petal-mouth back further into its body, getting ready to perform some sort of powerful attack. After Isaac attacked the Mandragora, and Tarenn killed the Elemental with a Water spell, the Mandragora fired one green seed at Isaac. "Ugh! That really hurt!" he said, but that wasn't the worst of it. He suddenly grasped his stomach and started to wince in pain.

"You've been poisoned!" Arina screamed, and as Marcus sliced the Mandragora again, killing it, Arina starts to charge her staff up for a white magic spell. As Isaac winced in pain again, he set to work trying to kill off the Bomb, but all he did was get it angrier. After another attack by Marcus to it, the Bomb engorged up in size. "Careful!" Tarenn said cautiously, pointing at the Bomb as she's charging up for another black mage spell. "If it gets too big, it'll explode!" Marcus and Isaac's eyes widened considerably. It was at that point that Marcus and Isaac noticed the same semi-inconspicuous lights around Arina's staff and Tarenn. Marcus asked why it was so, and Tarenn told him he was a complete idiot and that it signifies that someone or something is trying to gather energy.

The Bomb, at this point, begins to glow with the same lights. Even though Tarenn weakened it considerably with a Blizzard spell, she didn't kill it all together, and the Bomb engorged itself again in size before letting off a Fire spell of its own. Isaac continued to wince, getting mowed over by the Bomb until Arina used a white magic spell on him. "Hey! I feel better!" he commented to Arina, who laughed, saying it was an Esuna spell, with the power to heal those feeling ill. Marcus struck the Bomb again, and it fell to the ground. Arina healed everyone with another Cure spell, Marcus and Isaac discovered more sacks of Gil, and a few bottles of healing potions as well. "The fluids are blue. Must be your run-of-the-mill healing potions," Isaac commented, swishing around the liquid inside one of the bottle. "Someone might have dropped them, and these monsters picked them up." He picked up all of them and remembered that he needed to pick up a bag in the next town, which, unfortunate to him, he wasn't sure of. Tarenn became angry again, but when she saw what looked to be a rope ladder ahead, she sighed in relief and ran over to it.

"Thank Valentina we've found it!" she said, placing her foot on the first wooden plank at the bottom of the ladder and started to climb up, grasping onto the brown weather-worn twine that held her. When Marcus and Isaac looked at her with confused glances, Arina laughed and told them what Tarenn told her.

"Okay, good idea," Marcus said, shrugging. "At least we have somewhere to sleep safely for one night." Isaac agreed, saying that Tarenn was a genius, which she appreciated greatly, saying so from two-thirds of the way up to the treehouse, and added that it would be better if we traveled the rest of the way in the morning. He then grabbed the ropes and held them steady while Tarenn climbed up the rest of the way, and then started to climb up himself. He then told Marcus to hold the bottom steady while Arina climbs up, and Marcus agreed, partly because he was the strongest and could pull himself up, and party because he had a nice view of Arina. So while Arina shimmied up the rope ladder, Marcus took full advantage of the view until Tarenn noticed what he was staring at, calling him a pervert. Arina gave him a nasty look and climbed up the rest of the way, and Marcus started to climb up when Tarenn started to yell at him again.

"Get up here, quick! There're four coyotes coming this way!" she screamed anxiously, and Marcus, seeing them off in the near distance, started to scurry up the ladder, pushing himself up onto each plank very quickly. As soon as Marcus reached the treehouse level, he and Isaac quickly pulled the rope ladder up and onto the treehouse deck, and as soon as the coyotes ran to the trees that the treehouse was perched on, they decided to give up, and ran back and through a clearing a few meters up. Arina chuckled, said that Marcus always knew how to get into danger, and then started to walk around the treehouse.

The treehouse itself was quite large for a treehouse – it had three rooms, all of quite a nice size. It actually was supported by several trees, with the deck on all of them, so one could imagine this treehouse was quite big. Inside were a kitchenette with a few cabinets, a stove, a sink, and no food anywhere except for tea bags, and a wooden plank table with a few chairs made out of bamboo. The next room was a simple one with a straw mat for a floor, with only a table off to one side, holding a tea pot and a few tea cups and two futons in a compartment off to the side, and of course the Charm Crystal, with its purple glow that emanated throughout the entire room, which was hanging over the table as a movable chandelier. The last room, separated by a partition, was a quaint hardwood-floored bathroom with a toilet that emptied out into the ground, a table with a bowl to put water from the kitchen in, and a giant relaxing bathtub that stood on a platform a few steps above everything else in the bathroom. It was rather like one of those nice luxury cabins up in the northern mountains, or at least that's what we've heard from Tarenn's sister. Arina continued to wander around the deck and the rooms until Marcus came into the central room and started to scratch his head and think.

"You do realize there are only two futons, right?" Marcus said to her, smiling a little, because he knew he'd get to share a futon with at least one of the girls. He secretly had a bit of a crush on Arina herself, but he'd never tell her. "We're sharing?"

"Looks like it," Tarenn said, disappointed. "I know one thing. You're either sleeping with Arina or the floor, not with me." She folded her arms in disgust again. "Not after that ladder incident." After Marcus begged Arina to let him sleep on the futon with her, and after several bouts of laughter from Tarenn and Isaac, Arina accepted, and Marcus stopped whining.

They settled in quickly and got to bed as soon as they could, because they all wanted to get up and out as early as possible. As Arina fell quickly asleep with Marcus breathing calmly next to her, she found herself in a vivid dream. She was walking down a beautiful hallway, with paintings spaced evenly in the carved white mahogany walls. Windows shined natural light from the sun into the hallway, and as she walked down the hallway, she realized she was looking through a white laced veil. She looked down and realized that she was wearing a wedding dress, which was odd, considering the fact that she had no idea where she was. She kept walking until she saw someone further down the the hallway next to a set of giant double doors, and when she ran to see who the person was, she saw it to be her father, wearing a tuxedo with towels. "You look good all dressed up, Father," she said, smiling, to which her father could only smile back as his eyes were starting to water. She laughed, hugged her father, and as he opened the doors to reveal a giant glowing light, she stepped inside and closed her eyes to protect them from the blinding light.

She opened her eyes to find something totally different. She was in a completely dark and dingy basement, or at least she thought she was, even though the room she entered was gargantuan. She didn't really see much until a minute later when she took a few steps and a light was turned on, a giant floodlight from the ceiling that looked like it was an infinite distance away. She looked around – she was right about it being dingy; the walls were of a stone material. She realized that she was on a landing a few steps above a stone floor. That wasn't the worst part, as she saw in the middle of the dungeon what seemed to be a giant torture device, with two people huddled around it and a third person strapped onto a metal panel set vertically with two large rotating large rings going around and around the panel and the person. This wouldn't be so bad, but the rings sent a wave of electricity into the person on the metal panel. Arina was horrified to see what was happening to the person, and when the two others left the room by a wooden plank door on the other side of the room, Arina ran up to the machine in preparations to shut it down when her eyes opened up in horror. She had seen her own self on the torture device, complete with blood-letting cuts on her forehead and through her body. She wanted to scream, just to try and get anything out, but before she could do that…

Arina woke up in a cold sweat, and sat up a bit, before realizing that she couldn't. She looked down to see that Marcus had rolled over and now had his arm around her, cuddling her. Too tired to wake him up, and too freaked out about her vivid dream to care, she just laid there, trying to think of what her dream could mean, and just when she thought she would fall asleep again, Marcus woke up all groggy, realized that his arm was around Arina, and quickly retracted it. "You seem freaked out," Marcus said, smiling at her and trying to avoid the awkward conversation that they would definitely have about the arm thing. "Have a nightmare?" Arina nodded, then told Marcus about her dream.

"Seems a little strange, but what dream isn't?" Marcus said, trying to act all philosophical. "You haven't been one for prophetic dreams, have you not?" he asked Arina, to which she said no. He thought about it for a few more seconds, then shrugged. "It's probably nothing. Just a good old fashioned nightmare."

Isaac and Tarenn woke up about twenty minutes later, and as soon as we washed up and had a cup to tea to wake all of us up, we set out, throwing the rope ladder down. After all four of us climbed down, we stretched a little, and then we realized we had no idea where we were going. Well, at least three of us didn't know.

"We're going to Lapasca. You know, the seaport," Tarenn informed us, since the rest of us had no ideas. "We can find some better supplies there." Marcus, Isaac and I all looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Tarenn down the dirt road to Lapasca. About three hours, three dead Mandragoras, two Bombs, and several sacks of Gil later, they arrived at the northern gate of the semi-busy town of Lapasca. A guard, which could have easily doubled as a sailor on one of the ferry ships that come in to Lapasca often, smiled and waved at them as they walked through two sets of gates into town.


End file.
